FRANCE IN ALGERIA, 1830-1962

Most of France's actions in Algeria, not least the invasion of
Algiers, were propelled by contradictory impulses. In the period between
Napoleon's downfall in 1815 and the revolution of 1830, the restored
French monarchy was in crisis, and the dey was weak politically,
economically, and militarily. The French monarch sought to reverse his
domestic unpopularity. As a result of what the French considered an
insult to the French consul in Algiers by the dey in 1827, France
blockaded Algiers for three years. France used the failure of the
blockade as a reason for a military expedition against Algiers in 1830.

Invasion of Algiers

Using Napoleon's 1808 contingency plan for the invasion of Algeria,
34,000 French soldiers landed twenty-seven kilometers west of Algiers,
at Sidi Ferruch, on June 12, 1830. To face the French, the dey sent
7,000 janissaries, 19,000 troops from the beys of Constantine and Oran,
and about 17,000 Kabyles. The French established a strong beachhead and
pushed toward Algiers, thanks in part to superior artillery and better
organization. Algiers was captured after a three-week campaign, and
Hussein Dey fled into exile. French troops raped, looted (taking 50
million francs from the treasury in the Casbah), desecrated mosques, and
destroyed cemeteries. It was an inauspicious beginning to France's
self-described "civilizing mission," whose character on the
whole was cynical, arrogant, and cruel.

Hardly had the news of the capture of Algiers reached Paris than
Charles X was deposed, and his cousin Louis Philippe, the "citizen
king," was named to preside over a constitutional monarchy. The new
government, composed of liberal opponents of the Algiers expedition, was
reluctant to pursue the conquest ordered by the old regime, but
withdrawing from Algeria proved more difficult than conquering it. A
parliamentary commission that examined the Algerian situation concluded
that although French policy, behavior, and organization were failures,
the occupation should continue for the sake of national prestige. In
1834 France annexed the occupied areas, which had an estimated Muslim
population of about 3 million, as a colony. Colonial administration in
the occupied areas--the so-called régime du sabre (government
of the sword)--was placed under a governor general, a high-ranking army
officer invested with civil and military jurisdiction, who was
responsible to the minister of war.